In the oak-paneled boardrooms of global OEMs, executives sat and scratched their heads. They couldn't understand what Toyota was doing and wondered why it was hedging its bets about an all-electric future. After all, this was the company that tried to force-feed the Prius as some kind of global shorthand for green motoring. In doing so, Toyota was one of the earliest adopters of the electrification concept, but now it had decided to slam on the brakes.

 

Instead, it was now talking about a multi-pathway approach which seemed inconceivable to some of those other decision makers, but that with hindsight, now looks increasingly inspired. Electric vehicles were not going away, and Toyota wasn't about to abandon them. But the EV-only narrative that some OEMs adopted has been badly dented by slower demand, cost pressures, charging frictions, and huge financial write-downs. And far from taking the wrong approach, Toyota appears to have read the market far more carefully than its rivals.